


The Beginning of Things to Come

by Sleepyblue_Kitzune



Series: We Make Our Own Destiny [2]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Devil May Cry, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types, Tales of Xillia
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Crack, Dark, Friendship, Gen, Half Human-Half Elf Tifa, Humanized Sonic Characters, Humor, Implied Dimensional Travel, Implied Relationships, Implied Time Travel, In This Universe Gaia has Four Continents Instead of Three Continents, Mentions of other characters - Freeform, Mild Language, Minor Canonical Character(s), Minor Injuries, Mystery, Protective Elena
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 11:22:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29188500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sleepyblue_Kitzune/pseuds/Sleepyblue_Kitzune
Summary: The day may have been horrible for Tifa, but at least there were a few good things that came out of it, which essentially saved her mood and her evening. Or did it?
Relationships: Elena & Tifa Lockhart
Series: We Make Our Own Destiny [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2096214





	The Beginning of Things to Come

**Author's Note:**

> I had a lot of fun writing this (way too much of it in fact, and you'll see why very soon) and I hope you guys will have fun reading it. Enjoy!

On a Friday afternoon, Tifa finds herself holed up in a pitch black room, knee deep in a puddle of water that had been forming around her from a leaky ceiling. For the past ten minutes, at that, and it didn’t help that the air was now becoming a little humid in the room.

She could feel it, the difference between the heat of the light, beaming down on her head from somewhere behind her, and the cold droplets of water hitting her skin. The contrast was big and she did not like it— which was very odd considering that water was one of her main elements. But still, even she had limits on how much water she could take.

Hot or cold. It did not matter. She did not want to get wet. She was already dealing with a lot as it is. 

Like this freaking heat, for instance. It wasn’t helping her at all, and with the way she was dressed— err, overly dressed— right now...well, things were starting to look very bad for her. _What a bummer,_ she sighed, and here she figured that being in a business attire would be fine. 

Ha! As if!

She should’ve gone home immediately and changed into something more loose and comfortable before she got here, because her current outfit, the one she wore to school earlier today, as it stands, wasn’t doing her any favors.

Sure, the colors were nice and the material of the clothing felt amazing on her body, made her look professional and everything, but she didn’t think that either of them could stand up to the heat or the humidity of this room. _Well, they could. But I personally don’t think they could handle it this much,_ she thought with a grimace when a bead of water— not from the ceiling— slid over the lashes of her eyes and dripped from her face...

**_PLOP!_ **

...Only to land in the middle of her cleavage. 

“Gah!”

How gross.

‘ _It’s ridiculous how fast the temperature in here is changing. I haven’t been in this room for twenty minutes and I’m already beginning to sweat like a goddamn Boundfat. Did someone find a heater up in this place and turn it on or something? Because dammit, I’m fucking dying here!_ ’

**_BANG!_ **

**_CRACK!_ **

The sound of something falling to the floor and breaking in the corridor not too far away from the room broke Tifa out of her thoughts, and she immediately covered her elven ears with a wince.

“Oh dude, what did you knock over and break?”

“I don’t know.”

“Hey, that looks like a vase or a—”

**_CREAK!_ **

“What was that?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t care. We need to look for Tifa and Espio, or Vector and that blonde haired partner of his, since they’re still in the game, I think—”

The speaker was interrupted by a chilling groan, which was then followed up by another **_creak_** , the sound of someone whispering, and finally, the sound of someone giggling like a little girl.

“Forget about them! Let’s just get out of this spooky hallway before the ghosts or monsters show up.”

“Yeah! Screw this place. I hate haunted mansions!”

The group of six left out of the corridor so fast it’s as if the almighty Hades had been after them, which was fine with her. But at the same time she didn’t like it. The situation—her situation was already bad enough.

_Oh to be trapped in a dark room somewhere inside of a haunted mansion filled with ghosts and monsters,_ Tifa sighed as she carefully got up from the wet floor and shuffled to the back of the room where a row of chairs were pushed back against the wall, next to a small dresser that looked as if it had been ransacked before she entered this space here, and the unmade bed that had been obviously used.

‘ _I should probably call Espio and see where he’s at._ ’ 

She pulled out a chair and sat down. Then she reached up and began to fiddle with the headset that was sitting askew on top of her head. Once righted, she moved her fingers over the five colored buttons— red, yellow, green, white, and purple in that order— that were located on the left side of the earphone until she reached the second one and pressed down on it for five seconds.

A low **_beep_ ** emitted from the headset’s speakers before a virtual blue screen along with a virtual keyboard of the same color popped up in front of her. 

With a few simple clicks, Tifa pulled up a window that contained a list of names on it. She scrolled through the first column of names until she reached the second row and found who she was looking for.

Right before she could hit call, the wall behind her shook with a **_thump_**.

**_RAAAAAAAWR!_ **

**_KABOOM!_ **

Startled, Tifa leaped up and away from her chair when a bunch of debris flew into the room and crashed right on top of table she just left; however, the half-elven woman nearly tripped over the bedpost behind her when she backed away from the mess, all while covering her nose and mouth up with the sleeve of her jacket as a cloud of smoke poured into the room.

_Well that was unexpected,_ she coughed, narrowing her eyes at the giant fist withdrawing from the hole the in the wall, only to be replaced by a figure who stepped into the room a second later.

**_RAAAAAAAWR!_ **

When the smoke cleared, there was a giant metal lizard monster standing in front of her, glowering down at her as it focused a good amount of its energy into its yellow eyes, making them glow a bright crimson red color.

It was getting ready to attack, she realized with a curse. _Gotta do something before it lands its attack,_ Tifa thought as she closed the virtual window then pulled another one up in its place. She clicked on the remaining diamond-shaped rune icon that was lit up and spoke into her mic.

“Stand by, Yukinari!”

Her headset flashed sky blue for a split second until a beam of light —made completely out of digitized energy particles— appeared in front of her and quickly took the shape of a big silverish-blue and white fox-dragon type of monster with six bushy red-tipped tails, large black ears, black horns, white front claws, hazel eyes, and shards of ice forming a trail along his furry back.

“Quick! Put up a barrier!”

Yukinari yipped as he stood on his hind legs, threw one of his claws out, and summoned a green colored barrier just as the red beam of energy crashed into it.

However, the collision of the two moves created a backlash of waves that blew past the two and crashed into the wall near the door with a **_boom_** , enshrouding the whole room in a cloud of smoke once again.

“Now burn that metal lizard! Use Fire Meteor!” Tifa commanded. “Then follow that up with Icy Bash!”

Yukinari wasted no time as he jumped into the air and summoned an army of lava balls that floated all around him. Then with a roaring yip that echoed throughout the whole room, he flung his attack through the receding cloud of smoke.

**_RAAAAAAAWR!_ **

And sure enough, the lava balls made contact with the foe who began to stagger around in pain until it ran into the bed.

“[ _Take this you metal hunk of junk!_ ]” a silver-blue blur flew towards the robotic monster.

**_RAAAAAAAWR!_ **

The metal lizard cried out once again when Yukinari landed a few powerful blows— with his cooling fists— in its gut, making the monster swerve to the side and crash on top of the bed, shattering the poor furniture to pieces.

Tifa smiled when it did not get up. “Nice work, Yukinari!” she told him when he landed in front of her. 

Yukinari turned around and waved his right claw at her with a smile and a low yip.

Tifa turned to look at the new hole in the wall where the door used to be before looking back at her fogon monster.

“[ _What’s wrong, Master Tifa?_ ]”

Tifa shook her head. “It’s nothing,” she said, then held an arm out to him with a smile, motioning her head at the hole behind them. “Let’s get out of here before any more monsters or ghosts show up, okay?”

Yukinari nodded and yipped happily as he ran over to her side.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

It was raining by the time the two made it out of the spooky mansion and the sky —that was midnight blue in color— was teeming with huge dark clouds that threatened to get bigger any second now. They were storm clouds, Tifa realized as she and Yukinari stared at the trail of blue lightning traveling across from one cloud to another, flashing its sparks every so often.

And yet...

‘ _Good Gaia!_ ’ she swore, wiping a sheen of sweat off her forehead, _‘I thought we were done with the heat, but I guess not. Ugh! I hate how real the weather feels in here sometimes!_ ’

It was hotter out here than it was inside of the mansion. With the rain, she thought it would be nice and cool outside. But nope! It wasn’t.

Suddenly, Yukinari’s ears perked up.

“[ _I sense something._ ]”

**_BOOM!_ **

This along with Yukinari’s growl broke Tifa out of her thoughts and she looked down to see him crouching low to the ground, his wet fur bristling on end as he glared at the black smoke cloud in the far distance.

_There’s some people fighting up ahead,_ she thought with narrowed eyes, as she stilled her fists, which had been clenching for the past ten seconds or so with anticipation. 

**_BOOM!_ **

Her elven ears twitched at the sounds of someone yelping in pain and another person, this one being feminine in tone, yelling “Leave me alone” back at them.

They were loud. Very loud. She didn’t need to see the fight as she could hear it just fine, and whoever they were, they were steadily getting closer and closer to her and Yukinari’s location.

“Get back here you blonde-headed bitch!” shouted an angry masculine voice.

Tifa looked down at Yukinari and observed him with a critical eye. ‘ _I don’t think we can afford another battle in his condition,_ ’ she stated, frowning at the amount of cuts and bruises she could spot on his body, which was shaking at the moment, ‘ _That last battle with the metal lizard wore him out. And I know he doesn’t have that much strength left to keep on fighting._ ’

Yukinari’s stats were low. Real low. Especially his HP bar, which was in the red area. 50 / 7560, to be exact, she checked, glancing at the icon that was still lit up on her virtual blue screen, then looked at the two other icons that were blacked out, signifying that the rest of her team were all knocked out, before turning her attention forward and closing the screen altogether.

So yeah, they don’t need to get dragged into another battle. 

**_KABOOM!_ **

“Aaargh! Damn you!”

Tifa didn’t like it, but they needed to hide somewhere, especially since she could see four silhouetted figures coming towards their little area. 

It was a tall man with lime green eyes, spiky black hair that had purple and white streaks running all throughout it, and small pointy animal ears on top of his head. He was riding on the back of a huge wolf-cat type of monster with orange eyes and wide horns that ran down the length of his ebony black and yellow fur, and chasing after a platinum blonde haired, brown-eyed woman that was flying away from them on top of a giant bird-like dragon with white, black, and light green feathering.

“Stop running away you stupid bitch!”

“It’s not called _running away_ you moron, it’s called a _strategic retreat_! Learn the difference! And for the love of Minerva, would you please stop calling me a bitch!”

“Why you little—”

**_KABOOM!_ **

“Haha! Nice one, Ventus!” she cheered over the man and his monster hollering in pain from the surprise attack they just received.

Tifa and Yukinari shared a quick glance and nodded at each other. The two turned around and jumped onto the roof of the mansion, taking care not to slip and fall off as they immediately took shelter behind one of the upper tile ledges that hid them from view. However, the temptation to take a peek was strong, and so, they gave in. The two looked over the ledge and saw the blonde haired woman and her birgon monster fly into the clearing.

“There’s nowhere for you to go now you cowards! Give up!”

They turned around to face the spiky black and purple-white haired man and his wolcat monster who appeared in the area seconds later. 

“Attack them again, Ventus! But this time, use Tornado Blave!” she commanded, ignoring his little taunt for the time being.

Ventus summoned a large green twister that was made entirely out of energy blades with a flap of his wings, and with a chirping cry, he flung his attack at the opposing duo.

“Fenris, retaliate with Voltage Storm! Take them all out! Show them no mercy!” the man commanded with a dark grin, his eyes glowing extra menacingly under the lighting of the lightning that flashed above them. “No one gets to make a fool out of me, The Great and Powerful Mephiles Dark! And no one gets to get away with it either!” he finished with a laugh that got drowned out by the booming thunder overhead.

A golden red aura, crackling wildly with sparks of blue energy, surrounded Fenris as he lifted his head up and howled. 

In an instant, his aura exploded, and it shot right up into the rainy night sky. The energy flew into the storm clouds, only to become absorbed by them seconds later, and it turned the whole sky purple.

Tifa and Yukinari slowly stood up from their spot and watched with wide eyes as the sky flashed once, then twice, lighting them and the whole area up in a field of white-blue for a full five seconds, before shooting down a single bolt of purple lightning that cut through Ventus’ attack before it could even touch Mephiles and Fenris.

‘ _Dear Gaia..._ ’

‘ _[No way...]_ ’

“Goddammit!” the blonde haired woman cursed before telling Ventus to retreat.

This prompted Tifa and Yukinari into action as well, especially when another bolt of lightning crashed down right in front of them five seconds later and missed, to which they were thankful for.

“Okay! Time to go, buddy,” she said in a hurried whisper.

Yukinari said nothing and nodded his head quickly.

Before any of them could escape, however, Fenris slammed his front paws deep into the ground with a howl that pierced through the thunder’s **_boom_** , creating a massive fissure-like wave current that ripped through the earth. 

“Now perish!” Mephiles shouted into the sky, still laughing.

The electrical wave current shot towards the duo on the ground and the duo on top of the mansion at high speed, flinging up bits of mud and debris in the air, right as a third bolt of lighting— that was much bigger and wider than the last two— shot down from the heavens above like a beam of light and struck all four of them at the same time.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

In another area, there were two figures resting in a large tree, taking shelter from the rain. The taller of the two was a huge yet slim shisa monster with blue eyes and had streaks of black running through various parts of her red and golden white fur while the other one was a bald man in a suit, with dark sunglasses over his hazel eyes.

Hearing a very faint **_kaboom_ ** in the far distance, the shisa suddenly looked up.

“[ _Master Rude..._ ]”

Detecting a slight hint of worry in his monster’s voice, Rude turned to her. “What is it, Gādian?” he asked, ignoring the few drops of rain that managed to land on him.

Gādian said nothing. Instead, she extended her right paw out, calling forth a barrier to surround them, which surprised Rude. However, he understood why she did that when he saw a wave of mud and debris fly into the shield without warning before sliding and bouncing off of it harmlessly.

“..........”

“[ _Now do you see it, master?_ ]” Gādian looked down and gave him a side glance, dropping the barrier once the danger had passed.

Rude stared at the smoke cloud that resembled the head of a mushroom in the far distance and realized with a start that’s where he saw a group of people heading at earlier.

And out of all of those individuals he spotted, only two of them had looked familiar to him. 

The first person turned out to be a sexy ass woman with long black hair, shiny vermilion red-amber eyes, cute pointy ears, and big tits— which certainly matched the crude description of this Tifa person that Reno gave to him, in those _exact words_ , over the phone one day when the redhead video called him and told him who met during that “vacation trip” he took to the Southern Continent last year— while the second person turned out to be one of the Turks-in-training that Director Tseng has had his eye on for a while now, looking to recruit the blonde haired woman sometime in the future, once she has graduated from college, that is.

He also remembered there being a haunted mansion over in that area too. But it might not be there anymore, given the fire he could see up ahead, as the smoke started to clear up.

“[ _Whoa!_ ]” Gādian suddenly exclaimed, looking up with wide eyes.

The smoke wasn’t the only thing that went away, though.

“[ _The weather..._ ]”

Rude had noticed it too when he didn’t feel any more drops of water land on him.

“Yes,” he finally answered Gādian’s question as he raised his head and stared at the sky, which was storm cloud free, for a moment. “It has stopped raining now,” he added before turning back to the area he was looking at seconds ago.

The fire was still there unfortunately, burning oh-so fiercely. It was so hot that even he could feel its blazing heat from here. The sight of it was both blinding and chilling. 

It left an odd feeling in the pit of his stomach and he did not like that one bit.

Despite the sunglasses on his face, Gādian still managed to pick up on what the Turk was feeling. “[ _Come on, master, let’s go check it out. I know you want to,_ ]” she suggested, with a small sigh, before jumping down from the tree.

Rude, who watched Gādian land on the ground below, nodded and jumped after her a moment later.

Once he landed and climbed onto her back, Gādian ran towards the fiery area.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

Heat and pain. Those were the first two things Tifa felt upon cracking her eyes wide open and what greeted her was a sea of fire. And it lit a fear in her. A familiar fear that she hadn’t felt in four years. _Just like that time in Nibelheim_ , she thought in daze, and unknown to her, her body began to shake.

“Miss Lockhart.”

My goddess, these sensations were horrible. 

“Come on, wake up, Miss Lockhart.”

She didn’t think a virtual video game was supposed to make everything feel so damn real to the players. It didn’t before, so why now? Why is she starting to feel these things all of sudden? And all at once? 

Hell, she didn’t think that a forest fire could replicate what she— 

“Tifa! Wake up!”

**_SMACK!_ **

A sudden burst of pain exploded on her right cheek and the swerve of her head completely woke her up. Blinking, Tifa slowly raised her hand up to the spot where she felt the stinging pain at and rubbed it gingerly, feeling a small bump starting to form there, all while ignoring the blood and mud she could feel running down her forehead and the left side of her temple. 

“I’m sorry for slapping you, Miss Lockhart. But it was the only thing I could think of to snap you out of it. You were beginning to have a panic attack.” 

Blinking again, Tifa’s eyes moved over to her right and clashed with a pair of worried brown ones. “You said my name,” she said, staring intently at the blonde, short-haired woman who looked a few years older than her and had blood and mud on her face too. “How do you know my name? Who are you—”

“Elena,” the older woman quickly answered her question, “But the introductions can wait later. Or until we can, well, move, that is.”

Seeing the wince on Elena’s face as she tried to move but couldn’t, Tifa raised her head and took a look around. She didn’t have to look too far because Yukinari was laying on the muddy ground in front of them. He was on his stomach, facing them with half-lidded hazel eyes and had blood running down the right side of his face, yipping lowly in pain, while Ventus was semi-knocked out on his back a few feet away, with his left wing thrown over the lower half of their bodies. 

_Oh fuck. We’re trapped,_ she uttered to herself in wide-eyed realization.

“Ventus, could you—”

A strained roar, soft in tone and filled with a lot of pain, interrupted Elena and she became shocked by her monster’s answer.

“Really?” 

Ventus answered her with another strained roar, except this one was much lower in volume. 

“Shit. That’s not good.”

With some slight difficulty, Tifa turned to Elena. “What did he say?”

Before Elena could open her mouth, a familiar laugh greeted them.

“I have to say, I’m impressed that you four survived Fenris’ Voltage Storm attack. A powerful electric and light magic based move that can bypass all barrier and shield moves, strike all enemies on the field, and leave them with a 50% chance of being paralyzed or a 30% chance of being burned. And yet, you two ladies are still fine, unlike your monsters, somehow.”

The two women looked up to see Mephiles standing on Fenris’ head, staring down at them with those glowing eyes of his, and with his arms folded across his chest.

_Oh my goddess! He looks a lot like Shadow,_ Tifa stared at him in surprise while Elena glared at him. There was something terribly off about the guy. He felt down right evil. And dark. She didn’t know if it was his eyes, which looked very demonic in appearance because of his slitted pupils and red sclera, or if it was his aura, which felt pretty intimidating on its own, but this man here...

...He scares her.

Just a little bit. 

And that was very surprising to her, because even back then, she wasn’t scared of anyone. Not even someone like Sephiroth. 

Sure, most people were and she understood why. Who wouldn’t be? 

But her? Nah. He didn’t scare her. 

Hell, she had been more afraid of the unexpected and non-native, unknown monsters they came across on Mt. Nibel than the man who killed them. With some slight difficulty, she might add, but that's besides the point.

“You look familiar.”

Tifa snapped out of her thoughts when she heard footsteps stop right in front of, catching the tail end of Elena’s “Hey! Get away from her, you asshole” warning. She looked up and almost had a heart attack at how close the spiky black and purple-white haired man was to her, as he knelt before her and grabbed her chin with his clawed hand. 

“I’m warning you, you spiky haired, demonic asshole! If you don’t let her go, I’ll kill you and...”

_What an annoying little mortal this woman is. I wish she would just shut up,_ Mephiles rolled his glowing eyes as he slowly tuned Elena’s voice out and turned Tifa’s head from side-to-side, observing her features from all angles with the look of complete concentration on his face. He took in the unusual shine of her eyes, looked at the unusual glow of her fair human skin, then lingered a bit on the pointy shape of her pierced ears, before turning back to her now-glaring eyes, finally.

‘ _Ah, there it is!_ ’

He couldn’t help but smirk at the look of unease on her dirty and bloody face, pleased at the overall situation, pleased that he managed to not only piss the other woman off, but also instill a bit of fear into the one in front of him.

“You...”

Again, he ignored Elena and closed his eyes, sighing, “I see now.”

“Huh?” Tifa looked at him in confusion when he shook his head and dropped his hand away from her chin.

“What are you talking about?”

Mephiles opened eyes. “That is why you look so familiar to me. You’re the woman who won that fighting tournament in Crystal Ray Town last year,” he continued, ignoring Elena’s question, and stood up from the ground. “Tifa Lockhart, I believe that is your name.”

“..........”

Seeing as he didn't get a real response from Tifa, he finally turned to Elena and said, “Hmm. You know...now that I am looking at _you_ more closely, you look oddly familiar as well. You were with two people. A tall redhead in a suit and a tall blond haired guy in black and white clothing, I think. And that was around two years ago, I wanna say,” he paused, looking as if he was thinking about his next words to say, and once he had them, he continued with, “I know it was here on this continent, somewhere. Forgot the exact location I saw you three at. But I never forget a face. And yours is definitely ringing a bell in my mind right now. It’s too bad that I didn’t catch either of your guys’ names.”

Despite the curious look Tifa sent her, Elena ignored her in favor of glaring harder at the spiky haired man walking away from them and back over to his wolcat monster, who had been lounging on the ground lazily, watching them this whole time. “And why is that?” she demanded while reaching over to take Tifa’s hand in hers, “Why are you so fixated on a topic such as this?”

The sudden action along with the squeeze that came after it surprised Tifa immensely.

‘ _I can’t believe it. This lady here... She is treating me the exact same way that Rufus and Reno did when I first met them,_ ’ she realized, staring at the blonde haired woman who was trying to comfort her. Reassure her. Protect her. And for a moment, she wondered if Elena worked alongside the two men, or if they were just old friends and nothing more, before turning her attention back over to Mephiles.

“No reason. I was just curious about your pretty half-elf friend’s identity here, that’s all,” he said over his shoulder. “And now that I know who she is, my curiosity has been sated.”

Elena didn’t even bother correcting him on that friend comment he made seeing as that wasn’t important right now. She only focused on the two words he said, like _identity_ and _curiosity_. She didn’t believe him one bit and she knew Tifa didn’t either from the look she caught on the younger woman’s face out of the corner of her eye. “You’re full of Chocobo shit. That is a horrible lie and you know it!” she retorted coldly. “So, why don’t you tell us how you really feel? What are you after?”

Mephiles chuckled and turned around. “I think I will pass on that, thank you very much,” he said as his eyes flashed menacingly under the lighting of the fire behind him and Fenris. Then he looked at Fenris and murmured, “Finish them off for real this time, will you? But do it with Bolt Blast. I can sense a few new auras coming this way. We’ll take care of them after you’re done here.”

Tifa’s eyes rounded when she caught his whispered command.

Mephiles turned around, “Farewell ladies!” and waved goodbye over his shoulder as he walked away.

“Hey wait a minute!”

“You asshole! Get back here!”

Fenris gave a nod towards his master’s back and got up. With a feral grin, he turned to face the women and their monsters and opened his mouth. Before they could get another word in, though, he fired a beam of electricity at them. Point blank.

**_KABOOM!_ **

A vicious grin appeared on Mephiles’ lips when he felt a huge gust of wind blow behind him and heard the screams that accompanied the explosion afterwards. _A game over for them and another victory for me,_ he whistled out loud as he stuffed his hands inside of his pockets and weaved his way around the sea of fire.

And the second he made it out, a small orb-like machine— with a golden white halo above her black cat-like ears, blue-pink eyes, devil wings, and a red bow attached to the back of her metal head— flew by and stopped somewhere behind him a few seconds later. 

“ **Player No. 7 and Player No. 13 are out of usable monsters and can no longer continue playing the mission; therefore, they are both eliminated from the game on this event only. Please come back another day and login if you wish to try out the event again, nya. If you have any questions and/or concerns about this event or any upcoming future events, please head over to the Help Desk either in the game at Headquarters or out in the Real World after exiting the Control Room and ask for me, Orbie. My two human assistants, Tails and Nico, and I would be more than happy to help you, nya!** ” she announced in a cutesy voice.

He didn’t even have to look back to know that the four had turned into particles of digitized energy, didn’t have to see the beam of sky blue light behind him to know that it had returned the two players back to the real world, and he most certainly didn’t need to turn around and check on Fenris when he could hear the wolcat walking behind him just fine.

“Good work, boy.”

Mephiles let out a ghost of a smile when he received a low and soft growl in response. But when the two people he met flashed through his mind just now, he grinned.

‘ _Yes... There’s always a next time._ ’

His eyes glowed even brighter at the thought, and he felt a shiver go through his body at the potential prospect of fighting them. One-on-one, or two-on-one, in a real battle, maybe.

‘ _We will see each other again..._ ’

He hadn’t been this excited in a long time, he realized, and to think that there were only three who could stir up these kinds of emotions in him...it was actually kind of shocking, and relieving somehow, to discover that two more people have now been added to that very short list.

‘ _...One day in the future._ ’

The fire burned brighter behind them, roaring away as it consumed everything in its fiery path.

‘ _I will make sure of that._ ’

He threw his head back and laughed a long laugh that sounded so dark, and so chilling, that it not only scared the nearby wild monsters away, but it also made his poor wolcat monster back away from him some in fear.

* * *

Upon waking up, Tifa felt a great deal of pain. In her head and on her cheek.

At first, she didn’t know why she had felt it, but then she remembered some things. She remembered receiving some wounds and being slapped by Elena back in the game. The pain was a reminder. It was there to let her know that, yes, it had not gone away like it was supposed to and that it was there to stay.

Like the bleeding she could still feel on her forehead and on the side of her temple, for instance. But all of that should’ve dried up by now.

“Tifa?”

A light tapping noise woke her back up to reality, making her blink a few times.

“Tifa.”

_Espio,_ she said, recognizing the deep voice of her partner, friend, and classmate from school. He was standing right outside of the pod machine she was in, tapping the heel of his shoe against the floor from what she could hear. 

“Ti—”

“Yes?” she replied as her shiny eyes strayed upward and lanced on the latch hook above her head.

There was a sigh of relief before he asked, “Are you alright?”

“Well,” Tifa began as she grabbed onto the hook, pulled it down, and pushed, popping the door open with a **_whoosh_** , “I could be better. But I’m alive.”

A young man about her height with gold eyes and fluffy shoulder length fuchsia hair that had a single yellow strand hovering above his forehead stepped into view.

“I can see that,” he replied, eyeing the half-elven woman’s appearance with some concern, frowning at the mud and blood stains on her long wool coat, black blazer, white blouse, and black dress pants.

She noticed his concern, “I know it looks bad. But trust me, I don’t look _that_ horrible,” and flashed what she hoped to be a reassuring smile at him. “I’m fine, really.”

He noticed right away and gave her a blank look in return. “Don’t try to reassure me with that ‘I’m fine’ speech, Tifa. I can see that you’re _not_ fine.”

Tifa dropped the smile and sighed. “Sorry, I don’t know what else you want me to tell you,” she said weakly, staring at the purple haired man for a moment before looking away. “Also, could you...umm...” she trailed off and went quiet.

Realizing what she was asking for, Espio resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he bent down and took her small hand into his much larger one, and without a word, he pulled Tifa up and helped her out of the machine. “Careful now,” he said, placing his other hand around her shoulder to steady her when she started to wobble on her feet.

Tifa nodded and leaned against him with a sigh, her gaze elsewhere.

Espio turned and looked down, locking his eyes onto the panel box that was sitting right next to the pod machine and had a small screen with six white buttons underneath it.

“Go ahead, Espio. I’ll be fine.”

Espio glanced up at Tifa for a hot second and nodded his head before turning his attention back onto the panel box. He left her side and kneeled in front of the machine, tapping it gently once. It flashed to life and glowed blue as his fingers quickly flew across the screen, typing in something until the little dot above the screen turned red with a **_beep_**. He pressed the second button and with another **_beep_** , the dot turned blue and the first slot located on the side of the panel popped open, revealing a small black and silver colored device inside. 

The purple haired man took it before pushing the button again to close the slot. After the dot turned red, then switched off about a second later, he stood up and walked back over to Tifa.

“Here’s your ID Monster Data Dex, Tifa.”

Tifa looked up at him then at the device in his hand. “Thanks Espio,” she took her ID MDD and pocketed it. “Let’s get out of here and go to the Help Desk.”

Espio nodded. “Will you be able to walk now?” he asked, eyeing the young woman once more.

Tifa looked down then flexed her hands and legs for a moment, to see if there were any residue tingles still there. When she felt no resistance, or felt like her body was going to collapse in on itself, a large smile broke out on her lips. “Seems like it,” she hummed and raised her head up. “I guess whatever weird sensation I was feeling earlier went away for now.”

Espio smiled back. “Good. Let’s go.”

A comfortable silence settled in-between the two as they walked through the Control Room that was filled lots of equipment and machine pods, passing by a few rows that were still on but had their lids closed, signifying that the people inside were still in the game, and made their way over to the staircase where the observation deck was at.

“Before we leave, let’s check in with Nero first,” Tifa suggested as she started making her way up the stairs.

Espio shrugged and followed after her. “Fine with me.”

The two reached the observation deck where a tall man with faux-hawk white hair, blue eyes, and a cybernetic arm sat behind a desk that was placed against the wall near the door, cluttered with a stack of paperwork that looked to have already been signed and stamped from what Tifa could see. 

Then off to the right of him, there was a bobble-head figure of Bahamut sitting next to a cup filled with writing utensils in it and a cellphone that had a sword charm hanging from it, with the words ‘ _Devil May Cry_ ’ engraved in white on the trinket.

And lastly, off to the left of him, there was a steaming hot beverage of what smelled like coffee sitting in a Iron Man mug, next to a charcoal gray notebook and a laptop.

He was currently sitting back in his rolling chair and watching the monitors that were attached to the wall up ahead, displaying different parts of the area inside of the virtual world.

“Nero.”

The man named Nero turned to them as they approached his desk. “Hey you two, how are ya?”

The two classmates shared at glance.

“Well,” Tifa began, turning back Nero, “Other than the pain I feel in my cheek and in my head and looking like I got dragged through hell and back, I’m okay. For the most part,” she added that last part when he shot her somewhat of a dubious look.

“We wanted to check in with you and find out what's going on,” Espio told him. “I talked to some of the other players who got eliminated earlier like I did and they all shared how the wounds they received in the game started to feel a little too real to them and that when they woke up back here, their injuries didn’t disappear. In fact, they appeared with them,” he explained, making the other man look down and narrow his blue eyes. “Do you know why we’re experiencing this all of a sudden?”

A frown appeared on Nero’s lips. “I wish I knew that answer to that, but I don’t,” he said before turning back to look at the monitors overhead. “My team and I have been informed of the situation earlier and we have two of our beta testers, Silver and Lady, already looking into it. From what I can tell you, they haven’t reported anything major or bizarre aside from the glitch they found and fixed an hour ago,” he then took a peek back at the two and said, “But if anything else pops up, we will post it on the bulletin board and on the message board online to let you all know what’s up.”

Tifa and Espio nodded their heads. “Where's the rest of your team and other beta testers at right now?” the latter asked.

“Out on lunch,” Nero paused right as a thought occurred to him, and he looked down to check the time on his phone. “Oh, and if I’m not mistaken...” he turned back to them and said, “Tails and Nico started their lunch break five minutes ago while Orbie left to go run a few errands in the city.”

“Really? That’s a shame.”

Nero looked at Tifa. “If you want, you could stick around until either one of them gets back,” he noticed the expression on her face and then added, “Unless you have to be somewhere else right now.”

“It’s fine. I can check my status another time. Thank you for telling us, though.”

“No problem,” Nero replied then gave her a serious look. “Now about those injuries you mentioned a minute ago...why don’t you head over to the Medical Room and get them checked out,” he suggested.

Tifa smiled, picking up the small hint of concern in his voice. Even though they were nothing more than mere acquaintances and have only talked to each other a handful of times before in the past two years they have known one another, she felt a bit touched by the devil hunter’s show of worry.

_Nero may look like a punk, but he’s a pretty swell guy once you get past his attitude and get to know him. It’s too bad that some people cannot see that,_ she could feel her smile widen as she raised her hand up, “There’s need for that,” and channeled a bit of mana into it, making it glow very brightly. “I can heal myself.” 

“Huh?”

Once she had his attention, Tifa looked down and swiped her glowing hand over the length of her whole body so fast that he almost missed it. “Healer,” she casted, her voice calm.

Then right before Nero’s eyes, a greenish-yellow and white light enveloped the young woman, and to his surprise, her injuries started to close up and disappear until there were no signs of them being there anymore. 

She was now wound-free. Aside from the dried up blood and mud that was still on her face and clothes, of course. He was amazed.

“See,” Tifa made a motion towards herself with a smirk, but not before giving him a quick peace sign. “No injuries.”

Nero shook his head, as he broke free from his shock, and chuckled. “Well look at you, little miss healing prodigy,” he returned her smirk once the glowing light had died down. “Are you a medic, Tifa?”

Tifa shook her head and dropped her hand as well as the smirk off from her face. “No. Not really. I just happen to know a few healing moves and healing based spirit artes, that’s all.”

“Right. Gotcha.”

“Well, we’re gonna go now, Nero. Take care.”

“Yeah. You too.”

“Bye Nero,” Espio nodded at the man, who waved back before turning his chair away, and walked over to the door with Tifa following not too far behind him.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

The basement area was bustling with humans and non-humans alike, walking around and going from aisle to aisle, surveying all of the items and merchandise that were on display, or stall to stall to talk with the workers and/or volunteers that were stationed behind them. 

There were a few middle school students, high school students, and even a couple of her college classmates from school, she recognized, hanging out in various spots. They were all sitting with their own little groups, chatting excitedly about the upcoming events as they looked over their ID MDDs and compared their monster teams with one another. Just talking about the game in general from the looks of it.

_It's nice to see more people and people joining up for the Spirit and Monster Arena: VR Colosseum game, though. They really seem to be enjoying it so far. That’s good,_ Tifa smiled as she and Espio made their way through the crowd, passing a group of four people standing out in front of the Medical Room, six people waiting in front of the empty Help Desk, and ten people hanging out in front of the Gym and Training Room, before turning a corner. 

They continued walking, turning a few more corners, passing by more people who were either standing around and talking on their phones, or sitting down at the nearby tables and benches and snacking on something, until they entered an elevator hall, nodding to the three security guards they passed who tipped their heads at them in return.

And low and behold, they found Elena, who still had some dried mud and blood on her, and another person, a tall cap-wearing, goldenrod-eyed man who looked extremely familiar to Tifa, sitting on a bench and watching something on her phone.

“Vector.”

At the sound of Espio's voice, the two looked up. The cap-wearing man, who was apparently named Vector, grinned at the purple haired man and got up from the bench.

“About time you and your friend made it over here, Espio,” he walked over to him and extended his fist out to the younger man. “You sure kept us waiting,” he chuckled in good humor.

Tifa looked at her classmate who let out a soft snort, but otherwise, raised his own fist up and gave him a fist bump. “Sorry about that. Tifa and I had a talk with Nero before we left the Control Room,” she turned to Vector and looked at him. _Now I remember... He was the DJ I saw at that bar six months ago,_ she nodded to herself, noting the green hair peeking out from underneath his hat and the gold chain necklace around his neck. _The only thing_ _I don’t see on him are his headphones. Maybe he doesn’t wear them all the time or something._

Vector turned to her and grinned. “So you're Tifa, huh?” he said, extending his hand out. “I'm Vector, a friend of Espio's and his co-worker for a detective agency we work at. He's mentioned you a couple of times before and I had been curious about who his new friend was ever since he first mentioned you,” his grin widened as he continued, “So let me reassure you when I say this...it's nice to finally put a face to the name I've been hearing for the past year now. And thank you for putting with this hard-ass here. I know he can be a bit much sometimes, but he's a cool dude.”

Tifa laughed lightly and shook his hand. “Oh you don’t have to tell me, I know,” she held back a smile at the glare Espio directed at Vector, then at her, and saw Elena in the background trying to cover up her low snickering. “And it’s nice to meet you too. I think I remember seeing you at The Radiant Gemstone actually,” she said before releasing his hand. 

Vector raised a curious brow. “Was it last year in November?”

“Yes.”

“Ah, gotcha! I volunteer at that place from time to time as their DJ, usually whenever theirs is out sick. Making music and creating remixes or mixtapes...all of that is a passionate hobby of mine, you see.”

“Really?”

Vector nodded.

“That’s really cool,” she said, impressed. “From what I heard, it sounded great.”

“Thank you,” he said, giving her his signature million-watt smile, then made a gesture to Elena, who was now standing right beside him. “Guys, this is Elena. She was my partner in the game. But we have teamed up before. At least...uhh...” he trailed off and looked at the blonde haired woman for help.

_Oh you have got to be kidding me,_ Elena snorted, shaking her head at him, before turning her eyes over to Espio and Tifa. “Two times in the past. Today makes it our third one,” she explained.

“I see. Well it's nice to meet you,” Espio politely inclined his head at her in greeting.

“Likewise.”

Tifa exchanged a glance with Elena. “We already met each other, actually,” she said, turning back to the two men.

Vector along with Espio looked at the two ladies in surprise.

“Wait. Really?”

“Yes,” confirmed Elena.

Espio crossed his arms. “I guess it must've happened after Vector and I got eliminated.”

“Who eliminated you, Espio?”

“Mephiles,” he grimaced.

Vector shared his expression. “Same here.”

Tifa and Elena exchanged another glance before wincing and turning back to the two men. “He got us too, I'm afraid. It happened while we were together,” the former said.

Vector swore under his breath while Espio looked down and glared at the floor.

“He even treated me like shit too. And then threatened to kill me and all of my friends and loved ones one day. Out here in the real world, in fact. I don’t know what that guy’s problem is,” the former grumbled.

Espio uncrossed his arms. “That’s...”

“A bit extreme? Hell yeah it was.”

“But still...who knows if he’ll truly carry that threat out in the future. He could be bluffing for all you know,” Elena pointed out. “However, neither one of us would know unless he appears,” then in a lower voice, she added, “And that aura of his...I never would have thought it possible for someone to have _that much_ darkness in them. To a point where it just oozes out of them in _waves_ , even. It’s just...so much. Too much in my opinion.” 

Tifa frowned. “Yeah. His aura felt so invasive, so corrosive and evil...” she trailed off in a mumble, ‘ _Even more so than Sephiroth’s own aura after he lost it. And that’s saying something._ ’

The silence that rolled in after was tense, really intense, as each of them mulled over what had gone down in the game earlier, and they couldn’t help but feel like something was off about this whole situation. It had to be more than just a mere glitch. 

Hopefully Nero and the others could find out what went wrong and soon.

**_DING!_ **

The sound of a text message alert shattered the silence.

Vector, Espio, and Tifa looked over to Elena and saw her pull out her PHS, looked at it for a few moments, and texted something before putting it back into her pocket. 

“Looks like my ride will be here in thirty minutes.”

“I’m assuming it’s Reno, right?” Tifa asked then became a little confused when she immediately caught the slight waver in the men’s auras out of the corner of her eye and saw them look away. ‘ _What’s up with them? Why do they look so shocked all of a sudden? Was it because I said Reno’s name?_ ’ she wondered, turning to them slowly with narrowed shiny eyes. 

A flicker of surprise appeared in Elena’s brown eyes for a split second before it disappeared, and she turned to Tifa and said, “Yes. Good guess there, Tifa.”

Deciding not to think about Vector and Espio’s little dilemma for now, Tifa looked back at Elena and flashed the older woman a smile.

Espio, who had this chance to check the time on the watch, which was wrapped around his wrist, looked up. 

“It’s 5:45, you guys.”

Vector blinked in surprise. “Wow! I didn’t realize how late it was,” he then looked over each of them and suggested, “I guess we should get out of here, huh?”

The ladies along with Espio nodded their heads.

“Right. Let’s go.”

They made their way over to one of the elevators then pushed the button and waited. 

After about a minute later, it dinged and the door opened. The group of four walked inside and picked a random corner or spot to stand in at. Elena, who ended up next to the panel, turned to it and pressed the L button.

Vector glanced at Tifa and Elena for a moment before turning his attention back to the door, just in time to see it close. “I take it you ladies are jumping into the shower when you get home?” he asked as the elevator started to move up.

“Definitely,” they answered in unison.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

If Tifa thought it had been hot in the game, then she surely wasn’t prepared for what awaited her outside.

‘ _Oh no._ ’

The minute she and the other three reached the lobby floor, passing three more security guards on their way out of the elevator hall, as well as the the lady at the receptionist desk and the man sitting down in a plastic chair next to said desk, and walked out of the air conditioned building, they immediately felt the heat from the evening sun, beaming down on them as if they were ants under the under lens of a magnifying glass.

And one look up at the cloudy orange and purple-blue sky told them that it was going to get dark very soon. 

But this heat though...

“Yeesh! It’s really hot out here. I feel like I’m in a sauna or back in the game. Almost.”

Espio grunted, agreeing with Vector’s comment.

Trying to ignore the heat for now, Vector turned to the two women. “Well, it was nice seeing and talking to you ladies, but Espio and I are going to head home right now.”

Tifa smiled. “Same to you.”

Elena waved at him and Espio. 

“Take care, you two.”

**_BZZT...BZZT!_ **

The blond haired woman paused when she felt something vibrating in her pocket. _It must be Reno,_ she thought, right she took her phone back out and looked at it. _And it is,_ she turned to Tifa and mouthed “I’ll be back”, which the young woman understood and nodded her head, and walked off to take the call.

“Bye ladies!” Vector waved back then turned around and walked off, heading towards a black Chevy Silverado that was parked on the curb about a couple of feet away from them.

Espio on the other hand, however, stayed back and turned to Tifa.

“Hmm?” Tifa looked at the purple haired man in confusion. “What is it, Espio?”

“I will give you another co-worker of mine and Vector’s numbers in class tomorrow,” he told her, but when he saw the confusion deepen on her face, he then added, “This is so that you’ll have two others you can contact in case I am unable to get to my phone and answer you. I will let them know tonight so that there won’t be any surprises on either end.”

She understood now. “Oh. Okay. What’s your other co-worker’s name?”

“Charmy Bee. He’s younger than Vector and I and goes to Azure Academy High. A real nice kid...if you ignore his hyperactive, scattered brain side.”

Tifa held back the urge to raise an eyebrow at that. “Grade?” she asked.

“Junior.”

“Got it.”

“Espio!”

He turned around and saw Vector waiting inside of his truck patiently. “I gotta go now. Good Night, Tifa,” he gave her a look over his shoulder, “And see you tomorrow morning,” and a tiny smile before making his way over his green haired friend.

“Good Night, Espio!” Tifa waved at her classmate who opened the door and climbed inside.

“Tifa.”

She turned to see Elena walking back over to her. “Yes?” she said, catching the tail end of the Chevy driving off, and then noticed the PHS still in the older woman’s hand. “You finished with your call?”

“Yep.”

“Well it’s good that your ride will get here soon.” 

Elena gave her a puzzled look. “Wait, you don’t have a ride? Or a car?” she asked, her voice shocked.

Tifa bit her lip and looked down. “I do have a car...but my roommate, Amy, is using it since hers is in the shop right now. And she won’t be back home until later on tonight,” she replied, staring at her feet. “My neighbor, Vincent, offered to come pick me up after I get out of my last class for the day, but then he called me and told me that he had to go take his car to the shop to go get it checked out.”

_So Valentine has already approached her and became acquainted with her, huh? I wonder when did that happen,_ Elena thought, forcing herself not to react to the Ex-Turk’s name, and gave the younger woman a sympathetic look. “That sucks.”

Tifa raised her head and smiled weakly at her. “Yeah. I think I’ll just take the bus home,” she said, motioning her head over to the bus stop across the street from them. “I mean, I’ve done it before and—

“You can ride with us,” Elena blurted out, much to her own surprise and Tifa’s.

Tifa stared at her, stunned. “I can?”

Elena snapped herself out of her shock. “Yeah,” she nodded, as a tiny smile grew on her lips, and said, “Sure.”

“You think Reno won’t mind?”

“Are you kidding me? Of course he wouldn’t mind!” she told Tifa before walking over to a nearby bench. “That guy has been talking about you for the longest now. I swear, it’s almost as if he has a crush on you or something,” she sat down, laughing, and continued speaking. “Reno even tried to get your phone number off from Rufus too, and that was after he had found out that you gave it to him.”

“Really?” Tifa asked as she followed the older woman and sat down next to her. “I didn’t know that he missed me,” she said in a soft, low voice, and began wringing her hands together in her lap. “Did Rufus give it to him?”

“No.”

_Figures,_ Tifa sighed and shook her head. “That man there, I swear to Minerva...” she trailed off in disappointment, making Elena laugh again.

“Don’t tell Reno or Rufus I said this, but it’s amusing to watch them argue and fight over the littlest things sometimes, especially when the topic of you comes up.”

_Oh for fuck sakes, they’re still fighting? Ugh! I can't believe this,_ she facepalmed, and Elena laughed harder in response to her reaction. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by that considering...well...what I saw in the bar and...” she trailed off with a sweat-drop.

“No, you’re right. You shouldn’t be,” Elena said in-between her laughs. Then after calming down a bit, she raised her phone up for Tifa to see, “Hey, let’s exchange phone numbers. That way we can meet up and chat some more in the future after this. I'll even tell you some things about Rufus...and maybe Reno too,” and smirked at the new look on the half-elven woman’s face. “You thought I forgot, didn’t you?” 

“Well...” Tifa trailed off with a cough and looked away.

Sighing, Elena shook her head at the hint of guilt in the younger woman’s voice. “It’s alright, Tifa. I can answer your questions the next time we meet. How does that sound to you?” she offered reassuringly.

Tifa brightened up and turned back to her. “I would love that. Thank you,” she said before taking her own phone out.

The two exchanged phone numbers and started talking right after they put their cellular devices away.

“So what's up with the dress clothes, Tifa?”

“Oh this you mean? Well, I gave a speech in my Communications class today. And on these days in particular, my instructor wants the whole class to dress up.”

Elena stared at her, surprised. “Instructor? Wait, you're in school right now? What grade?”

Tifa nodded her head. “Yes. I'm a Freshman in college,” she answered. “And what about you, Elena? Are you in school too?”

“Yes. I'm a college student too, and I'm actually set to graduate next year in the Spring Semester.”

Tifa stared at her in awe. “Really?” at the older woman's nod, she continued, “Oh wow! Congratulations on making it to the finishing line.”

“Thank you, Tifa.”

“It's no problem. Now...”

The two then exchanged the names of the schools they go to. After that, they talked about what were the latest trends and fashions in Gaia right now, and then moved onto the Gaia People Magazines. They especially touched on the most recent “ _Who Are The Hottest Men and Women in Gaia Today?”_ Issue and, apparently, it had Rufus Shinra ( _Wait a minute, that’s his last name? What the hell?!_ ) featured in there.

And she, Tifa Lockhart, was featured in there too.

How—Just...why?

Tifa almost didn’t want to believe her, but when Elena pulled her phone out for the third time and pulled up an online article that talked about said magazine on there, featuring her and Rufus on the front cover of it no less, and showed her the pictures, she became real quiet for a long time. Especially when she caught sight of at least 27 out of the 10,350 comments in the comment section below:

> _You ain’t lying. That Lockhart chick is smokin’ hot!_
> 
> _She’s a fucking queen! Fashionable, Beautiful, and Strong. Did you see all of her matches last year in that tournament Crystal Ray Town hosted?_
> 
> _Yeah! I did. I was there and it was awesome!_
> 
> _Woohoo! Tifa Lockhart can get it._
> 
> _Tifa, my queen, plz step on me!_
> 
> _Hey, what about Rufus? Did you guys forget about him? That’s a fine ass man right there and if anyone can’t see that, then they’re surely blind._
> 
> _Oh yeah, he’s definitely Sugar Daddy material. Mmhmm._
> 
> _Man, as much as I hate that that guy is related to the President of the Shinra, you cannot deny that he is handsome._
> 
> _It should be illegal for anyone to be that hot or sexy._
> 
> _I wonder what else he uses those belts of his for._
> 
> _Bruh...that’s kinky._
> 
> _Rufus Shinra can shoot me or kidnap me and I will thank him for either one._
> 
> _Rufus Shinra! Plz have my babies!_
> 
> _Hey guys, what do you think Rufus and Tifa would like if you were to put them right next to each other? I think they would look cute together._
> 
> _Ooh...that’s an interesting thought right there._
> 
> _Hot._
> 
> _The sexiest couple on Gaia maybe._
> 
> _I ship it._
> 
> _Me too._
> 
> _Rufti! I think that should be their ship name._
> 
> _Damn, y’all are simping hard for this Rufus dude and Tifa chick, aren’t ya?_
> 
> _I’m seeing so much thirst in the comments right now. It’s like a flood in here._
> 
> _I don’t blame them. I would simp my ass off for those two celebrities too if I was a fan. But that Scarlet chick tho... Ooh she bad too._
> 
> _What about that red haired guy who follows Rufus Shinra around like a bodyguard or something, huh?_
> 
> _Oh he hot too! I love his red hair and those beautiful blue-green eyes of his... Mmhmm. So pretty._
> 
> _He looks so cool!_
> 
> _I think that Reeve guy is a handsome daddy too. He’s got that badass beard going for him and I do love a man who could grow a nice beard._

Elena looked up and saw how red Tifa’s face was and then felt a little bad for her. The poor woman must be so shocked and embarrassed by all of this. Hell, she would too if she found out that people were making some very...uhh...lewd remarks about her and simping for her and everything. Though she did agree with that one person who said that Tifa and Rufus would look cute together.

But she wasn’t going to tell that to anyone. 

Not to Tifa. 

Not to Reno. 

And definitely not to Rufus. Her own boss.

There’s no telling how any of them would react if she gave her honest opinion on that comment. 

So for now, she will shut her mouth and keep those thoughts to herself. 

“..........”

“Anyway, Tifa,” Elena began in a conversational tone of voice as she closed the article and put her phone away. “Did you see any of the new shows that came out this month?”

Tifa was thankful that Elena changed topics, and she became excited when the blonde haired woman started talking about things like martial arts, music, video games, and anime.

“I did.”

And the two of them talked about what their favorites were as they waited for their ride.

**xXXXXXXXXx**

The sky was dark now and filled with stars.

The time? Almost 6:30.

And Reno? Still not here. 

Elena looked ready to kill someone. 

Tifa could see it in the way the older woman was balling her hands up. Tightly. Into fists that shook with the force of an earthquake, and despite the calm look on her face, her brown eyes contained a storm inside that threatened to spill out. 

It was a vicious one, she could tell, and it made her want to flinch back. Or move away from the older woman. 

But she did neither.

So Tifa just sat there and watched the cars fly by down the street and ignored the woman next to her to the best of her ability. 

In addition to being an Empath, she was also a Sensor— or at least training to become one, like Jude is, after she had discovered this ability in particular a couple of months ago during one of her training sessions. It was the only reason why she knew how Vector and Espio felt when their auras became unsteady earlier, and that was due to her mentioning Reno’s name. An unsteady aura, especially when it wavers, can mean either one or two things: 

  * Shock 



Or

  * Nervousness



However...a pulsing aura, especially when it flickers wildly, like Elena’s here told her that the older woman was angry. Very angry. 

And could she blame Elena for being in a foul mood?

No. She couldn’t.

After all, she was starting to get a little angry herself.

_‘Where the hell is he?_ ’

“I swear, if this man doesn’t get here within the next ten minutes or so, I’ll...” Elena trailed off heatedly.

Tifa held back a groan of irritation as she wiped a bead of sweat off her forehead and glared at nothing in particular. 

Goddess, it was too fucking hot out here! 

The heat was slowly killing her.

And the combination of dirt and blood, which had been dry up until now, running down her now-sweaty body...ugh!

‘ _I could sure use that shower right about now._ ’

Before she could brood some more, her ears picked up the faint sound of a **_vroom_ ** coming toward them.

“Finally! About time he got here!” came Elena’s remark.

Tifa turned her head to see a dark gray Ford Mustang slow down and pull up to the curb, right as a few cars drove past it. _This is Reno’s vehicle? Interesting_ , she thought, impressed, and felt Elena get up from the bench and walk over to the car, just as the window to the passenger door began rolling down.

“Where the fuck—O-oh! Valentine!? I didn’t know you were with this dickhead here.”

“I had a meeting with Young Shinra a few hours ago, and since my car is still in the shop, he offered to give me a ride home.”

“More like he demanded that I give him a ride home, yo. It’s not like I wasn’t busy or anything when he and Vampire boy here approached me,” came Reno’s grumbling.

Elena snorted. “Knowing you, Reno, you probably weren’t.”

_It looks like they know Vincent and vice versa,_ Tifa got up and walked over to the car as well, wondering when did her neighbor meet Elena, Reno, and Rufus, and why didn’t he tell her? That seems to be a recurring thing lately from what she’d noticed. No one was telling her a goddamn thing, and it was starting to get on her last nerves now.

“Why thank you, Lena,” Reno replied sarcastically, unaware of the half-elven woman’s approach until Valentine looked past Elena, and took his hand off the wheel. “Oh, and you look like shit by the way—” he stopped short when a familiar tall black haired woman appeared right next to his co-worker and waved at Vincent. “Tifa!? Holy shit!” 

Tifa looked up and smiled at the priceless look on Reno’s face. “Hey Reno. Long time no see.”

He snapped out of his shock and grinned at her. “Yeah. Same to you,” his eyes flickered from Tifa to Elena before coming back over to the former. “I didn’t know you were hanging out with Elena on her day off, yo. When did you two meet?”

“Earlier today in the SAMA Store,” Elena answered for Tifa and stepped off the curb before walking over to the other side of the Mustang. “Now I hope you don’t mind, but I told Tifa that she can catch a ride too,” she added and opened the back passenger door.

Reno looked in his rear-view mirror to see Elena climb in and sit down on the sheet covering the whole back seat before shutting the door. “Really now?” then he turned his gaze over to Tifa and asked, “I guess you need a ride home then, huh?”

Tifa smiled at him sheepishly. “Yeah. I already asked her this...but you sure you don’t mind?”

He smirked before shaking his head. “Nah. Get in.”

Tifa nodded and walked over to the back passenger door, opened it, then climbed inside and shut the door.

Reno waited until the two young ladies buckled themselves in, and then waited some more until there were no more vehicles coming— or flying down the road like it was a damn race track, before driving off.

“Where to, babe?”

Tifa, who had pulled her PHS out and started reading something on it, looked up.

“I live in the same neighborhood that Vincent does.”

“Got it.”

“This is a nice car, by the way.”

“I would say thank you, but this is actually one of Rufus’ cars. I only put the sheet on back there because of what Elena told me earlier on the phone. If I didn’t, the boss would kill me. He doesn’t like any of his cars getting dirty, especially on the inside.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s like that for everyone else who owns a vehicle, Reno.”

“Eh. Good point there, yo.”

Elena, who also had her own PHS out, closed her eyes and leaned back into her seat with a sigh. “Hey Reno, are you going to tell us the reason why you were late?”

“It was only fifteen minutes.” 

_Did he just... I can’t believe he said that so nonchalantly_ , Tifa saw a vein pop on the side of Elena’s head and before the older woman could open her mouth to, no doubt, chew the redhead out, she butted in. “Fifteen minutes is still a lot, Reno.”

“Yeah!” Elena opened her eyes, “It was hot out there. I felt like I was melting on that damn bench back there, waiting for your ass to get here.”

“Will you shut up and quit your bitchin’ back there, Lena!?” Reno almost wanted to roll his eyes at the look he caught on her face in the rear-view mirror, but he didn’t. “I’m aware of how hot it is outside, but it couldn’t have been that bad,” he said before turning his attention back on the road, totally missing the look of disbelief Tifa shot at him.

“We’re in a car with the air conditioner turned on full blast,” Vincent spoke up, giving the red-headed Turk a side-look before turning to face the window. “I believe that makes a big difference, Reno.”

“Still...”

“Excuse you, Reno.”

“What?” he all but grouched out.

“It was hotter than fucking Ifrit’s ass out there. I felt like I was a damn Thanksgiving Chocobo being cooked in an oven,” Tifa and Elena deadpanned in unison.

Reno had to hold himself back from swerving his head around, while Vincent pinched the bridge of nose and mumbled “Oh Goddess Almighty, why is she like this sometimes? Who taught her that language” to himself, and just kept his eyes on the road. He knew Tifa had a bit of a mouth on her, but he didn’t think it was that bad. _Well I can’t take the full credit for that. It must've been the boss, I bet. From the amount of times he and Tifa had texted and video chatted each other in the past five months, I’m pretty sure he has corrupted her in some way or form without even realizing it,_ he smirked to himself. 

It’s not like he was complaining, though. He just wished that Rufus could’ve given him Tifa’s number instead of hogging it to himself.

Like damn. If he didn’t know any better, he would’ve thought that his boss was starting to act like he was Tifa’s—

“Reno.”

The red-headed Turk flicked his eyes over to the black haired, red-eyed man in the passenger seat before turning them back on the road.

“What?” 

“Turn left after this stop light, then right on the next one, and left at the final one. If you do all of that, we’ll be there.”

“Be there as in the neighborhood you and Tifa live in? So...left, right, left?”

“Yes and yes.”

“Okay. Roger that, Valentine,” Reno took a quick peek in the rear-view mirror again and caught Elena typing something into Tifa’s PHS. “I hope that is my number you’re typing in there,” he sang before adding, “Otherwise, I would be a very sad, heartbroken man.”

_This melodramatic buffoon here... I swear he’s doing shit on purpose just because Tifa is here now,_ Elena didn’t even bother to look up as she shook her head. “Yeah, yeah, don’t you worry, dickhead. It is. I’m doing it now so that I won’t have to listen to you complaining about not having Tifa’s number anymore. And I’m more than sure Rufus is tired of hearing it too,” she said with a roll of her eyes and handed the phone back to Tifa.

Tifa, who was trying her best not to laugh at what the older woman just said, put her phone away and smiled at Elena. “You two sure have an interesting relationship,” she teased.

Elena gave her a light glare and playfully punched her on the shoulder. “N-no we don’t,” she denied, finally making the younger woman laugh. 

“Yes you do.”

“No, we don’t.”

Tifa shook her head in amusement. “Whatever you say, Elena,” she hummed and took a look at Vincent, spying the subtle twitch in his shoulders.

“Valentine...”

And it looks like she wasn’t the only one who caught his reaction.

Elena on the other hand, though, didn’t notice a thing. She was too busy looking at something on her phone.

“What? I didn’t do anything, Reno.”

“Don’t lie. I saw the twitch of your shoulders and that smirk you had on your face a second ago.”

“........”

_Vincent got busted,_ Tifa thought with a smile, as she giggled to herself, and turned to look out the window, deciding to watch the scenery pass by for the rest of the ride.


End file.
